Patrick Le Guennec

• Born 1959 in Vannes (France)
• 1979 Ecole Normale Supérieure de Saint-Cloud
  • 1981 Maîtrise de Physique
  • 1982 Agrégation de Physique
  • 1983 D.E.A. de Physique Théorique
• 1988-1991 Researcher at the Direction des Etudes et Recherches d'Electricité de France.
• 1991-1994 PhD : "NMR spin diffusion in polyalkylthiophenes and the theory of polaronic states in conducting polymers."

Gauge geometries and their applications - in particular the description of chirality that is presented in this site, and the related theory of molecular recognition - were elaborated during a three-years spell (1995-1998) as a "Professeur associé" at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (rue d'Ulm), in the Chemistry Department.

Now, I am developing gauge geometries at the Institut de Chimie Moléculaire d'Orsay (France). Gauge geometries have many potential applications in the molecular field as a whole, but not all of them can be investigated simultaneously. Therefore, my work is focused on a few questions.

In particular, one question of widespread interest in chemistry is determining how much enantiomers are there in an unknown mixture of chiral molecules. Along with chiral chromatography, NMR in liquid crystals is one of a few techniques that allow us to observe different signals for every enantiomer, however we cannot say a priori which signal is due to which enantiomer - the "which is which" issue. Can gauge geometries help us to predict the answer? Present prospects look quite promising.